Ukrainian woman pilot implicated in journalists’ death to go on trial August 27

VORONEZH, August 25. /ITAR-TASS/. The first court hearing in the case of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko implicated in the killing of Russian journalists will be held in Voronezh, Central Russia, on August 27, a court official said on Monday.

The prosecution has asked the court to extend Savchenko’s detention which ends on August 30. The defense is insisting she be set free on bail.

On July 9, Russia’s Investigative Committee charged Savchenko with being an accomplice in the killing of two Russian VGTRK TV company reporters. She was detained in Russia and put in custody.

Investigators say that during armed hostilities in Luhansk in June, Savchenko reported the whereabouts of the Russian journalists to gunmen who then fired mortars at the place where the reporters were staying, killing both of them.